Zycor could hear the laughter and yelling of the adventurers in the guild hall. The sound of another impact with the clattering of kitchen equipment along with a separate impact into what sounded like the main doors that were thrown open as a result. Zycor quickly dressed himself with his usual training, and soon to be adventuring, attire and left his room. As he exited his room, he was met with an adventurer up on the balcony laughing at the spectacle occurring below.

“What’s going on out here, Barroo?” Zycor asked, sounding a bit groggy having only recently woken up.

“Ah, Zycor,” Barroo began, “It’s an entertaining story! Clyde and Aislin were having one of their usual arguments, something about who was better at teaching or something. Anyways, in order to settle their ‘disagreement,’ they held an arm wrestling match, which ended with those two idiots breaking a table! Then the two started yelling at each other about who’s fault it was until the guild master came out to deal with the situation. Needless to say, seeing that the two had broken guild property, she was not happy. Then those morons started blaming each other, getting louder and louder, until finally they both armed themselves. Then the guild master did what she does best and ‘helped’ them settle down.”

Painful moans were heard from the kitchen, and out of the doorway Clyde limped in and groaned, “I want to say that was uncalled for. Unfortunately, I would be a liar to do so.”

The other adventurers in the guild hall were laughing uncontrollably, one of them commented, “You two bicker like a married couple! Just get hitched already! Hahaha!”

The sound of concrete breaking was heard from the doorway of the kitchen. Aislin had grabbed the door frame and crushed the concrete as she angrily exclaimed, “Alright, who said that!? I’ll fucking kill yo- ow… why does talking hurrrt.”

“Oh come on guys,” Clyde started, “There’s no way that would happen; who would marry someone with manners worse than starved Orc?”

“Oh you motherfucker! Come here so I can kick your ass!” Aislin yelled.

A wave of intense mana suddenly flooded the room, instantly shutting everyone up. “Alright you two, I believe that is enough for now,” Adria began, “there are more pressing matters at hand than partaking in this banter so early in the day.”

The mana dissipating, Clyde and Aislin replied in unison, “Yes ma’am.”

As she turned to head back up to her office, Adria stopped and said, “Oh, and Aislin? The money to repair the damage to the doorway will come out of your next payment.”

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Aislin, upset, shouted, “Goddess dammit!”

As Adria continued to head to the stairs, she saw Zycor standing on the balcony with Barroo. While she walked up the stairs, Adria smiled and said, “Good morning sweety, did you sleep well?”

Zycor went to answer, but hesitated. He felt as if something was off, but couldn’t think of why he would feel that way. Quickly shrugging it off, he responded, “Yes, I slept well mom.”

Hearing him finally refer to her as just ‘mom’ brought her immense joy. She hugged Zycor and gleefully said, “Well, I’m glad to hear it.”

“Careful, guild master,” Barroo started, “You don’t want to spoil him too much, he might become too dependent.”

Adria released Zycor, and turned to Barroo with a hostile smile, “And what is a man with no kids of his own doing lecturing me on how I treat my precious boy?”

Throwing his hands up and backing away, Barroo replied, “Well, ya got me there. On that note, I believe I shall take my leave.”

Adria, complaining about Barroo’s statement, muttered, “Honestly, just because he is the second strongest adventurer here doesn’t give him the right to lecture me! Especially about how I treat my kid.”

In an attempt to calm Adria down, Zycor tugged on her coat and asked, “Are you okay?”

Adria immediately forgot about Barroo’s statement and donned a huge smile, “Yes I am, thank you for your concern! Just had to deal with a couple of children.”

As Zycor headed downstairs and Adria was entering her office, a man burst through the doors, out of breath. “WE’VE GOT TROUBLE,” the man shouted, “THERE’S A HORDE OF MANA BEARS HEADED TOWARDS THE CITY FROM THE NORTHERN FOREST!”

Hearing that everyone looked at each other and immediately began to get ready. Adria, from the balcony, replied, “Your request has been heard and accepted. Everyone, this is an emergency request. Everyone will be rewarded the equivalent of one Anemium for every bear killed! And due to it being urgent the rewards per kill will be doubled. Clyde, you are in charge of deciding how much each person receives.”

All the adventurers cried out, “YES MA’AM!”

Zycor, who was following Adria, headed downstairs with her. While she drew up the quest poster with the reward and description, he asked, “Can I go too? I’m finally old enough to go adventuring!”

“Out of the question,” Adria quickly replied, “Maybe if it was a lesser mana animal, but a bear is the one of the strongest types.”

Clyde, overhearing them, jumped in, “Why not let the bo-, I mean young man come along? I give you my word that I will protect him.”

Aislin chimed in, “I doubt you could handle that! So,” Aislin paused as she put an arm around Zycor, “I will accompany him and protect him.”

Adria was at a loss. She let out a heavy sigh, “Ok, fine. If you two are actually willing to cooperate on this, I suppose I will allow it.”

Clyde and Aislin looked at each other and they locked hands followed with a firm nod.

As Zycor finished putting on his boots and gauntlets, the thirty adventurers present departed to engage the mana bears.